So You Want to Be an Instructional Technology Specialist

The past two weeks, I've had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Will on Saturday Morning.  I've enjoyed connecting to share my experiences and to learn more about his experiences as an Instructional Technologist.

Dr. Will asked me to be on his Show for an episode called "So You Want to Be an Instructional Technology Specialist."

You can find the original post by visiting So You Want to Become an Instructional Technology Specialist.

SAMR for PreK and K

I teamed up with PreK and Kinder teachers and facilitators in our district to collaborate on an iPad roll out for early elementary.  I was asked to introduce SAMR to all of the PreK and K teachers in our district.  I thought back to every time I had seen a SAMR presentation or taught teachers about it in the past.  I felt like I needed to create something that would apply to my early elementary teachers.   I collected examples of real student work and looked at some old ways I had seen Pre-K and K teachers using technology and added a few other ideas that I didn't see happening often in classrooms.

The most important part of our presentation was talking about good quality lessons that teachers use to check for understanding and relating SAMR to what prek and kinder teachers do in the classroom.

The teachers on our team challenged me to create the presentation in Nearpod to teach teachers about this awesome tool without directly teaching them about the tool. It worked out really well, teachers enjoyed interacting during our session. The slide show was our Plan B.

We used apps in our SAMR presentation that teachers would use in hands-on workshops taught by teachers on our curriculum writing team during the afternoon sessions.  I made sure to share the lesson ideas as we talked about where they fit in SAMR.

What's even more awesome is, teachers decided they'd like to help me develop our own Pre-K and Kinder Padagogy Wheel similar to the one created by Allan Carrington, because we couldn't find one that would relate to early elementary. I can't wait to collaborate with teachers in our district to do this.

My SlideShare minus the video examples.

SAMR for PreK and K from klwrightbalbier


My NearPod presentation on SAMR for PreK and K
 

Kind or "Kiss Ass"

Here's a blog post I wrote a long time ago.  It's one that I kept in draft until I was ready to share, because I like to share happy things not things that bother me.  Here's to my first post that I wrote while feeling angry.

Don’t mistake being positive, excited, kind and caring for being a "kiss ass."

I really need a second to vent and process something I heard.

I work with many people.  I hear the advice, warnings, and gossip about people around me all the time.  I chose to be an ear, I don’t really add to the conversation and I certainly don’t repeat it.  I don’t like controversy.  I prefer to bring people together. I like it when people accept each other for who they are and help each other out for our students. 

One day, I served a school all day with a technology integrated session. I had a wonderful PLC with a few teachers that inspired me.  I left feeling like technology was being integrated effectively.  I felt that the students in their class were really blessed to have teachers that love teaching.

That same day I squeezed in time to meet with another teacher one on one. During that time it was expressed how happy she was now that she was no longer working with those “kiss asses.” How they came up, I don’t know, but those “kiss asses” happened to be the teachers that inspired me earlier that morning.  They are happy, they are excited, they share, they give everything a try without complaining.  I don’t know what happened between them, I’m not even going to ask.

I just replied by saying I’m really glad that you are happy this year and quickly moved onto the focus, the reason I was working with her.  I did my job and tried to cheer, motivate, and inspire.

I began thinking about things.  The same happiness the teachers expressed in the morning is the same kind of happiness I have when I’m excited to share something I have learned.  I can hardly contain myself.  They are kind and giving people. Oh, I could go on and on about the way these teachers give their time.  I tend to want to take care of people too.  It’s not because someone is important to everyone else or “popular.”  I am kind to people that are important to me. If I go out of my way for you, bring you a Starbucks, meet you for lunch, or stop by to say, hi. I never have hopes of something in return.  I don’t keep score or tabs. I do things because I want to and it’s a gesture that shows I care. 

My vent is to say that I was offended, even though the comment wasn’t directed at me.  I know people have said the same about me.  Yes, I’ve been called a “Kiss Ass.” Off the top of my head, I remember hearing this after I meet with someone I care about, someone I consider my mentor. I met with someone who was there to teach and encourage me when I was a newbie.  She also happened to be my principal at the time.  When I hadn’t seen her at school for an extended time, I worried about her.  Yes, the office staff kept us up to date on the details, but I contacted her and met her for lunch while she was recovering.  I wanted to be there for her because I care about her as a person.  Hearing that someone turned that into a reason to call me a “kiss ass” and assumed that I must have wanted something in return was very hurtful. 

I’m really not sure how I could have peacefully stood up for those teachers without breaking the trust I had already built with the other.  Really, I think it would be like standing up for myself.  I didn’t stand up for myself by confronting the person who said I was a “kiss ass.”  I simply ignored it and moved on with my life.  I won’t let someone bully me out of being myself.

Get to know people for their heart.  It’s a good way to learn what someone's intentions truly are.  Judging someone without getting to know the person or the situation really isn’t the way.  

Modifying my Child's Homework

Torture
At the beginning of the school year, I felt like homework with my first grader was torture. It still isn’t where I’d like it to be, but it’s a work in progress.  It will be a gradual change.

Homework is the same every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  I believe I know what my child needs a little extra help with.  I really wish I could focus her “homework” time on creating scenarios and problems for her to solve, as a way to connect what she is learning to the real world.   I wish we could invest that time together to Blog more, make movies, write digital stories, or even create our own games.  For now, her homework is what it is, a way to reinforce what she is learning in the classroom. 

On Mondays and Tuesdays my 6yo spends about an hour and a half completing homework.  She must write her spelling words (8 in English and 8 in Spanish) 3 times each, complete a math work sheet (front and back) and read a book that is sent home with her.  These books usually include her spelling/vocabulary words, but are not challenging for her.  The stories don’t have a plot and are not exciting.  You literally have to make up what your favorite part would be by looking at the pictures.  They are not stories that encourage my child to love reading.

(I’m human) After raising my voice at my child saying, “focus”, “do your homework,” “stay on task,” “I don’t want to be here all night watching you write your words,” and hearing my daughter tell me, “I HATE homework,” I knew we needed to talk with her teacher.  I emailed her and scheduled time to meet with her after school.  I wanted to kindly inform her about what was going on. My daughter and I were frustrated. 

Asking For Change
I wondered if her teacher would allow me to modify my daughter’s homework.  After all, I do work with my child at home. If she was going to spend that much time on homework, I wanted her to have the opportunity to create something.

After kindly sharing my concern, I explained that I would like the opportunity to switch things up a bit. I told her I would never ask her to provide extra materials or provide different homework. I know how hard she works and how many students she has. I told her that my passion includes technology integration and allowing students the opportunity to create things that they are proud of. I said, “I’d like to begin using technology with her to study and learn during homework time.”  Her teacher said that would be okay.  I promised to email evidence or send a note on the nights we modified homework. 

First Change
A few weeks ago, I asked my daughter if she would like to try something different with her homework.  I set my laptop down at her homework desk.  We substituted handwriting her spelling words for typing her words three times each.  I loved teaching her how to change the font style, font size, use the “tab” key, and print a document. 

The following night, my daughter asked if she could print her homework.  “Print, NOOOOOO”, I thought. I was sure she wanted to hand print her spelling words.  Oh no, she had her heart set on, printing her homework on the printer.  Tuesday night spelling words are completed pyramid style, as requested.  That evening, she learned how to center her words to make a pyramid.


   

Since then, she has learned how to use the character keyboard on the MAC to accent letters when typing her Spanish spelling words.  She is doing this independently now and wants to learn how to type without looking at the keyboard.  She wants to learn!  She wants to do this homework.  Typing is still new and exciting to her.


What’s Next
My next step is to begin brainstorming more ideas that will keep her engaged while practicing her spelling words.  I want exciting and fun learning experience for her.  Will we create a spelling game?  Will we write a song together?  Will we make a spelling movie?  Who knows, but anything is more exciting than writing spelling words 3 times each.

Parent/Teacher Conference
During the actual parent/teacher conference at my daughter’s school, her teacher said that my daughter secretly handed her a note I had written when she turned in her homework typed.  My daughter was scared to turn it in.  She reassured us that it was fine.  :) She really does have a wonderful teacher.  I’m so glad I asked her if we could modify the homework.

Where Are All the Connected Female Educators

While routinely checking my twitter feed in the morning, I ran across a nice blog post, Where are All the Connected Female Educators, written by Pernille Ripp.  She poses a lot of questions.  It made me think, What took me so long to get connected?  Why am I not more connected?  I agree, we need more women out there keynoting conferences, publishing books, and contributing to an audience that is mostly female.  I also wonder, if there are any men or women in my current situation.  Do the majority of connected women out there have young children?  How do they do it?

This is my own personal response.  I am not speaking for anyone else.  Being a connected educator is a struggle for me.  Being a connected educator is also very important to me. I have found that twitter is one of the best places for my own professional learning to take place.  I have found passionate educators, great podcasts, resources, and blogs while on twitter. I have been learning so much from other experiences.  I love it!

What Took Me so Long?

I learned about being a connected educator 5 years ago.  Around that time I was new to motherhood, my husband was deployed, but I still wanted to learn.  I struggled with raising my baby, keeping up with school paperwork, creating innovative lessons for my 4th graders, hanging out with my real friends, sleeping, the list could really go on and on.  I still created an account to begin connecting with educators on a social network called Plurk and through Facebook.

A few years later, baby number two came into the picture.  At that point FB was my place to share educational resources and baby photos.  I only contributed here and there, because the moment I picked them up from daycare, it was my time to catch up.  I hadn't seen them all day.  I missed many firsts, conversation, and I wanted to play with them.  

Now, I budget the time to connect.  What works for me is waking up at 4:45.  It seems like the best time for me to find time to myself. I drink my coffee, read blogs, check out twitter, read a book, or write a blog post of my own.  It's what works for me at this present time. Once I'm home and Mom, there are small opportunities to connect.

Most times, if I want to participate in a chat, I have to occupy my 3 and 6 yo for an hour.  That usually means start a movie for them.  I really do miss out on a lot of twitter chats.

I am human.  Sometimes, I do stop in to interact at night (on my smartphone). I am trying to limit that a little more, because there is nothing like the dagger of hearing your 3yo say, "Mom, put your phone down and play cars with me.  Do you want to play with me?" Mid tweet, I set my phone down. He'll only be 3 for a short while and I don't want to miss it.  

Stepping Out

I am trying to present at more conferences.  The struggle is feeling like I am burdening someone by asking for help.  My husband has a very crazy work schedule it doesn't leave much time for me to be spontaneous.  When he is home, he is one of my biggest supporters.  I have found that my family also supports my ambition to learn and my dream to excel in my career. That doesn't change the guilt I feel when I have to leave my children behind because I want to travel to a conference.

I want to be more connected, but I also want to be a great Mom and Wife.  Right now, it's educating my husband about why I'm on-line when he is home.  In a relationship, I feel it's healthy to explain what a twitter chat is.  Then it's knowing when to put the technology down because my family would like to interact with me too.

I Won't Give Up

I have begun challenging myself to step out and be more connected.  I do dream of being a Keynote at a conference.  I do dream of publishing a book one day.  I do dream of creating apps that will help my educator friends.  I do dream of going places. For now, most of that happens at 4:45 in the morning. That's how much I want to be connected. All in time.

Being Impersonated on Twitter

My Impersonation Story
Last week, I was introducing Twitter to an elementary campus.  As teachers searched my name to follow me, one asked, "Which one do I follow? There are two." Like any teacher would, I walked over to check it out. Yes, indeed.  Someone had taken my profile picture, description and full name to create another twitter account just like mine.  My handle @kbalbier, my imposter's handle @bkalbier.  At first, I was creeped out and worried that they would spam and direct message people that follow me.  :(

Checking it Out
Here are the results that appeared when I searched my name this morning. You'll notice the handles are slightly different and the second profile has a comma in the middle of the word instructional.

I'm still not sure why someone would create a double version of me.  I wonder if that person makes a few bucks for creating people and having them follow others.  Who knows.

I spent a little time checking out my impostor's profile page.  This morning it was following two.  One of the profiles it is following is @certain_kq. It looked like most of the followers of @certain_kq were impersonated too.  Then I found that @certain_kq was an impersonated version of @certain.  It seems like a big twisted web of fake twitter accounts.  After I searched the impostor again tonight, it is now following 21 people.

What to Do
Don't panic.  This could happen to anyone.  If this happens to you, I would inform your Twitter Followers.  Read up on the impersonation policies that Twitter has in place and make sure to report the impersonation to Twitter's Help. 

Then What
I reported the impersonation.  Twitter Support emailed back.  I was asked to fax a copy of my State Issued ID to verify that I am the real me.  I sent off the fax this morning.  Now, I'm waiting for Twitter to send a confirmation.  I hope this account will be deleted soon.

Lesson Learned 
I will make it a routine to search my name on Google and Twitter more often.  I will also read more than a profile description before deciding to follow others.

This is not going to deter me from seeing the bigger picture.  Sharing the good that is happening in the world of education, my experiences, and making connections with other educators are all things that are meaningful to me.  There may be a copy of my face and profile, following random people and tweeting nonsense.  That profile will have 0 impact on the world of education.  It will be a meaningless Twitter Account.  I, on the other hand, have bigger plans for the real me.

Update
After about 3 weeks, if I search the handle of the impersonator account, it currently says it has been suspended.  I searched @certain_kq and it has been suspended too.

FYI- I did not receive a confirmation from Twitter when they received my fax with my state issued ID.  I also did not receive a confirmation when the account was suspended. Just keep checking.

The Best Compliment

As an Instructional Technology Specialist, I work with 9 schools, K-12.  I make many classroom visits to work with teachers and students.  Many teachers introduce me to their class as a tech guru or as a person who is really good with technology. Maybe it's because I am always willing to help them with technology and when they attend sessions with me, technology is always involved.  Those are fine introductions.  It is always nice to be introduced to a classroom of excited students.

The best introduction I received was when I visited a 3rd grade classroom.  The teacher turned to her students and said, "Class, this is Mrs. Balbier.  She is my teacher." She went on to explain that she was attending my classes while they were at P.E. to learn all about iPads and the SMARTBoard for them.  

It made me smile.  The best compliment for me is not hearing, "You are a wonderful Instructional Technology Specialist." The best compliments are the times I hear, "You are a wonderful teacher."  <3

This teacher, made my day.  

@kbalbier

Twitter, why did it take me so long to get you?

I knew about Twitter.  I knew many high school students used it as their primary social networking tool. I knew my boss expected me to tweet.

Why did it take me so long to understand the most powerful learning tool, Twitter? After all, I have been sprinkling my love and excitement for teaching, technology, and learning, with a smile for as long as I can remember.  What I need to remember is, there was nothing wrong with what I was doing. What I see now is, I was only sharing with the people that see me face to face or get my emails.  They are the people I trust and work with.  I know that I have only debated and had conversations with groups of educators that will still like me tomorrow, if I don't agree with them.  

I feel that it is important to let you know that I have had a Twitter account since 2011.  I would only use Twitter when I attended a conference, like TCEA to tweet what I was learning.  I didn't add to my PLN by collecting people to follow.  When I would return home, I felt like I was tweeting myself and no one could possibly be reading what I was tweeting.  Do teachers tweet in El Paso?

I have been a faithful Twitter user for 4 months now.  Faithful, meaning that I am using it to learn, share, and make connections now.  I no longer feel like I'm tweeting myself.  How did this happen?

Twitter tips from a Newbie 

1.  Ask for Twitter Handles- During the last conference I attended, PodStock 2013, I didn't want to lose the connections I made.  Every time I had a conversation with someone, I asked for their twitter handle.  They usually asked for mine back and I gained a few new followers.  I wasn't tweeting myself anymore.

2. Build Relationships- This has been the most difficult for me.  Try to interact, answer questions that you know the answer to, send a compliment if you honestly notice they are sharing things that are valuable to you, retweet any message that you want others who are following you to read.

3. Discover hashtags #- I didn't worry about hashtags too much when I began tweeting.  I have since learned that it makes it easier to search and following topics.  As I read other tweets, I am paying attention to what hashtags they are using.  As I tweet, I am trying to add hashtags to share with others who are interested in that topic. 

4. Explore- Use the search feature in Twitter.  Search for people, topics, keywords, places, book titles, or anything you feel like learning or reading about.  After searching names of people I work under, I have discovered that I am not the only person that didn't get twitter.  There are a lot of people in education, making huge decisions, that do not have an account.  We all have to start somewhere, right?

5. Learn- Take learning into your own hands.  Every story and how is different.  Here is one story that started my twitter learning adventure.  I saw a conversation someone was having with @TechNinjaTodd.  I think I started following him because I liked his twitter handle.  I found that I am learning a lot from him and his twitter friends.  He shared, @EduAllStarsHQ podcast.  I later found that he is also a host with two other amazing educators.  As I listened to the podcasts, I started following all of the guests.  Then I found that other educators I made connections with at other conferences knew @TechNinjaTodd via twitter.  It's a small Twitter world.  I could keep going.  Since then I have been on a learning overload.  Learning through twitter because I want to, is very different than someone telling me I have to read a book and discuss it at work.  I am learning what I want to learn, when I want to learn it.  How powerful is that? 

I feel like I can sprinkle my excitement for education, learning and technology with people I know now.  I don't really know them, but I'll be working on the relationships.  Since twitter only allows for 140 characters, I know blogging is going to have to be another way I share.

Here's to my rebirth of learning and sharing.  I will be sharing Twitter with a campus on Tuesday.  I'll be happy to share your twitter advice.  I don't want it to take them 2 years to get it.

Connect with me on twitter @kbalbier